Events

Together with our partners, we organize events such as webinars and virtual courses. Our events are normally in English, French, or Spanish, occasionally with simultaneous translation. When registering for an event, you will receive a link to the event either right away, or the evening before the event if the link is not yet available. We ask that you do not share these links - rather, ask people who may be interested in attending to register themselves on this page, so that we can keep track of the level of interest for our events. If you have an idea for an event, please contact us. 

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Upcoming Events

(for recordings of past events,  please scroll down)

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Past Events

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January 19, 2021: Beyond Test Scores: Measuring the Contributions of Catholic Schools/Universities

Speaker: Dr. Quentin Wodon, OIEC

Panel: Andrew Miller (Boston College), Timothy Uhl (Catholic Schools for Montana) and Annie Smith (National Catholic Education Association)

Type of event: GRACE webinar. Recording (1 h): YouTube

Catholic schools and universities aim to educate the whole person. Beyond strong academics, they aim to educate towards fraternal humanism. Do we have any evidence that they succeed? Based on recent research for the United States, this webinar explores this question. Topics considered include (1) whether parents sending children to Catholic schools have different priorities for what children should learn in school than other parents; (2) whether students in Catholic schools exhibit self-discipline; (3) whether different stakeholders have different worldviews for Catholic schools; (4) whether there is less violence in Catholic schools than in other schools; (5) whether going to Catholic schools is associated with particular patterns of family formation later in life; and (6) more generally, what is meant by a Catholic identity. After a presentation summarizing findings from recent research, panelists shared their views on how Catholic schools and universities could rely on these and other research findings to improve the education they provide "beyond test scores".

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January 13, 2021: Current Experiments in Strengthening Catholic Mission

Speaker: Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, CM, Ed.D., President of the ACCU

Type of event: IFCU Talk. Recording (1 h): YouTube

Fr. Dennis Holtschneider will present the different facets of the Catholic identities of higher education institutions in the United States; will give a particular focus on Current Experiments in Strengthening Catholic Mission.  He will show that the US has 15 different approaches at present, and will make some early comments on their strengths and weaknesses.

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December 14, 2020: Discover a new course in ethical tech: An innovative course at UND

Speakers: Profs. Don Howard and Mark Bourgeois at the University of Notre Dame

Type of event: IFCU Talk. Recording (1 h): YouTube

Profs. Don Howard and Mark Bourgeois at the University of Notre Dame in the US initiated the project and will explain to us the wildly creative design of the course, which features throughout a narrative on a fictional university that prides itself on being a global leader in the deployment of cutting-edge technologies in a pedagogical setting. Each class session begins with an emphatic praise of the latest technological tool by the fictional university’s Chief Innovation Officer, and ends with a stern critical assessment by co-instructors Howard and Bourgeois of the ethical issues involved in the new technology. As future actors and decision-makers in the tech world, students enrolled in the course are not only made aware of the need to fully include the ethical dimension in tech R&D, but they also simply love it!

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December 2, 2020: The Heart of Catholic Education: A Conversation with Dr. Thomas H. Groome

Speaker: Prof. Thomas H. Groome, Boston College

Type of event: GRACE webinar. Recording (1 h): YouTube

When a school presents itself to the world as offering Catholic education, it signals, at a minimum, that it is committed to educating from and for faith. It is to educate from deep spiritual convictions that are core to Catholicism and for a Transcendent as well as an immanent perspective on life in the world and how to live it well. What then, we might ask, is at "the heart" of Catholic education? We surely need to know for moving forward faithfully in our time.

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November 10, 2020: Expérience des écoles chrétiennes pour répondre à la crise de la COVID

Speakers: Annette Scheunpflug, Rev. Samuel Mutabazi, Père Alexandre Bingo, Guy Selderlagh

Type of event: GRACE webinar. Recording (1 h): YouTube

Comment les écoles ont-elles répondu à la crise ? Quels sont les difficultés auxquelles elles sont confrontées ? Quelles sont les implications pour le futur ? Les leçons apprises vont-elles accélérer certains changements ? Sur base d’expériences en Europe et Afrique, ce webinaire apporte des réponses à ces questions. Avec Annette Scheunpflug, Chair of Foundations in Education, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg; Rev. Samuel Mutabazi, Directeur, Bureau National de l'Enseignement Protestant, Rwanda ; Père Alexandre Bingo, Directeur, Lycée catholique Saint-Luc, Banfora, Burkina Faso ; Guy Selderlagh, Secrétaire General, Comité Européen de l'Enseignement Catholique.